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By Juliet Martinez, managing editor
If you have visited Hazelwood Café on Second Avenue at Tipton Street, chances are owner Dasawn Gray has been the one to serve you. He has been there virtually every day since it opened in October 2022. He greets everyone with a smile, asks about their day and fixes them a great cup of coffee or tea.
That changed on Dec. 28, when he sought medical attention for what he thought was just a lingering cold.
“One day I took a nap, and when I woke up, my vision was blurry,” he said during a Feb. 16 call. He went to the hospital and found out he was much sicker than he had realized.
Doctors told him his blood pressure was dangerously high, that he had pneumonia, and it had infected his kidneys. He was admitted to intensive care.
“It was scary,” he said.
After three weeks in the hospital, Mr. Gray was discharged, but a lot had changed. He has kidney failure and now requires dialysis three times per week while he waits for a kidney transplant.
Brooke Keane, who manages the social media for Abstract Realm brewery, is a regular afternoon coffee customer at Hazelwood Café. She heard that Mr. Gray was sick and shared that news with Nick Jones, co-founder of New France Brewing. He suggested a fundraiser. Ms. Keane checked with Mr. Gray, who gave his blessing, and the planning began.
Ms. Keane, Mr. Jones and Kjerstin Pugh worked together to organize it. Ms. Pugh is the founder and executive director of Hazelwood-based nonprofit Offroute Art. The organization helps young artists sell their work and keep all of the proceeds. She and Mr. Gray have collaborated on a lot of projects in the past couple of years, including launching Hazelwood First Fridays in November.
“Dasawn and the café are connectors,” wrote Ms. Pugh in a Feb. 18 text, adding that he and his business “represent the warmth, care for others, and kindness that make Hazelwood, Hazelwood.”
That is probably why a lot of people wanted to help.
The Feb. 1 fundraiser for Dasawn Gray at Hazelwood Brew House. Photos by Kjerstin Pugh and Kevin D. Robinson_THE UNDERGROUND FUNK LAB, and courtesy of Dasawn Gray.
The organizers got donations of raffle prizes from the University of Pittsburgh Office of Engagement, Arts Excursions Unlimited, the Carnegie Library of Hazelwood, the District 5 office, the Industrial Arts Workshop, Commonplace Coffee, Hazel Grove Brewing, Alternate Histories, Community Kitchen, La Gourmandine, Greenhouse Co-op and more. Offroute Art put together a gift basket and artists from the nonprofit donated their art.
Ms. Brook said more than 100 people showed up to the Feb. 1 event at Hazelwood Brew House. The evening was enlivened by the Pittsburgh-based Rythym of the Night Fusion Band.
They raised more than $9,000.
Mr. Gray said the fundraiser was a bit overwhelming.
“I didn’t know I touched so many people’s hearts. I’m just trying to be humble and do the work that needs done in the neighborhood,” he said.
The money was a big help with bills that don’t stop for sickness or even hospitalization, Mr. Gray said.
He reopened the coffee shop with reduced hours the week of Feb. 10.
“Before getting sick, it was sustaining itself,” Mr. Gray said of the café. He said the schedule may be variable because he has to work around his dialysis appointments, but people were happy to stop in, say hello and get a beverage or treat when he reopened.
People get more than hydration or a jolt of caffeine at Hazelwood Café. They see friends, catch up on gossip, work remotely and hold business meetings. Older neighbors stop in to say hello or just sit near a sunny window. Teenagers hang out there in the afternoons or evenings. Mr. Gray welcomes them all.
He has partnered with Steel Smiling, a nonprofit that focuses on Black mental health, providing space for group activities. Adventure Outdoors, a nonprofit that promotes access to outdoor activity, has made the café a meeting place before hikes in the neighborhood. Even government agencies like the Small Business Administration and the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority have held information sessions there. What Mr. Gray does for Hazelwood is undeniable.
“There's honestly no one like Dasawn,” Ms. Keane wrote. “The passion he has for supporting his neighborhood and his community is unmatched. .... He needed some support, and it just seemed like the right thing to do to step up and support him after all he’s done.”
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